Fool: A Novel

by Christopher Moore

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Work details

Book details

Title	Fool: A Novel
Author	Christopher Moore
Rating
Tags	read, fiction, wishlist fulfilled, 2009 review
Collections	Your library
Your review	I wish I remembered more about King Lear, but it's been nearly 30 years since I read it in high school. Then again, I'm not sure it would have made much difference; in the Author's Note at the end of Christopher Moore's Fool, he acknowledges being pretty free in adapting the source material. To the best of my recollection, the basic plotline is followed: the aging king is duped by two of his ambitious daughters into disinheriting the third one, and quickly comes to regret it. Much intrigue, duplicity, and death follow. It is a Shakespearean tragedy, after all. However, in Moore's hands, it becomes a tragicomedy, at times bordering on farce, with much bawdiness. If you've read anything else he's written, you'll expect nothing less. I actually don't remember much about the king's Fool from the play at all, but here, his perspective takes the primary role. Pocket - so named because he was a particularly tiny baby when he was found abandoned on the steps of a convent - was raised by nuns, became part of performing troupe, and found a home in King Lear's court when he was able to coax laughter out of the king's youngest daughter, who had been mute since losing her mother. Although Pocket was officially Cordelia's Fool, her older sisters Goneril and Regan found their own uses for him as well. And from the Fool's unique position within the court, Pocket plays the pivotal behind-the-scenes role in orchestrating both the fallout and the resolution of Lear's choice. READ MORE: http://www.3rsblog.com/2009/07/thursd...
Other authors 1
Publication	William Morrow (2009), Hardcover, 336 pages
Publication date	2009
ISBN	0060590319 / 9780060590314
LC classification
Dewey	813.54
Primary language eng	English
Secondary language	(blank)
Original language
Date acquired	2009-02-11
Date started
Date finished
Summary 1	Fool: A Novel by Christopher Moore (2009)
Comments
BCID	XXX-
Number of copies	1
Citation	MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, Wikipedia citation
Data source	amazon.com